Broken Vows
by AustinPamaj
Summary: It was just his luck he fell in love with her. But really, who else?


**Just FYI, this is pre-TLH and after TLO.**

Jake

_Three years after the Titan War_

I tripped and fell on a rock. Ow.

_That hurt my pride more than my face._ I thought as I picked myself back up.

Once I'm up, I continue my walk up Half-Blood Hill, until I stood next to Thalia's Pine. Sitting down at the base of the tree, I lean my back on the bark, and close my eyes.

I'll slow down for a sec. So here's my life in a nutshell. I was raised by a single mom named Caitlyn, she sent me to Camp Half-Blood because she didn't want me, I was raised there from when I was about eight or nine years old. I've never really been a prominent face, although being a son of Apollo, I am a skilled archer and musician, even among my half-siblings. Today is my sixteenth birthday, roughly three years after the Titan War.

Wow, sorry for the info dump.

So, as I sat leaning against Thalia's Pine I pulled a picture out of my pocket. It was from one of those crappy disposable cameras that you could buy for like two bucks at almost any store in New York, but it was the contents of the picture that made it priceless.

It was a picture of a boy and a girl. The girl looked to be about three years older, but really it's hard to guess her exact age. She had spiky black hair and a black leather jacket over her _Death to Barbie_ t-shirt as well as skull earrings that didn't really match her silver circlet that she wore like a princess tiara. In the picture she was laughing at something the boy had just said.

The boy was grinning too. He had a mischievous smile that would make any sensible person keep a hand over their wallet. His blond hair looked like it had been cut with a knife, albeit by a very skilled knife wielder, that almost covered his chocolate brown eyes. His eyes told a very different story than his smile though. They looked as though he was much older than thirteen, as though he had lived several lifetimes and experienced a fair share of sad moments. Clothing wise, he was dressed simply in a white t-shirt that was slightly too small and black jeans tucked into his running shoes.

The boy was holding the camera, you could see his arm holding it up for the picture, but the girl tried to put her hands in front of her face in protest.

Of course, the boy was me.

The girl, well that's a simple and complex answer.

Her name is Thalia Grace, Hunter of Artemis. We had met during the Titan War, when she saved my life from a Hyperborean giant, then I saved her from a cyclops. After the fight, we ran into each other once more, as though the Fates were shoving us together. We ended up just walking around, doing basically whatever we wanted. We joked, we laughed, we shed tears for the fallen, and somewhere, somewhen I fell for her hard. I knew she was a Hunter, and she had a vow against dating, but my heart wasn't with the program. Of course, she probably viewed me as some random kid who told a few good jokes.

I should really hire a better writer for this stuff instead of me, like that one guy, whatshisface, Rick Riordan. Yeah, I heard he wrote some good books about something or another.

Anywho, I relaxed in the shade of the pine tree as I did every Saturday after the Titan War. I looked down at the camp I have viewed as home for so many years and laughed a little at how sentimental and dramatic I've become.

_Gods, Jake, before you would have been down there joking with your friends._ I thought to myself, smirking.

Then I heard the footsteps up the other side of the hill.

**A/N: Dun dun dun. Haha, thank you guys for actually reading through this whole fairly crappy chapter. I'm not the best writer, definitely don't claim to be, so don't expect perfection from me. And yes, I know that the dragon should have been next to the tree as well as the Golden Fleece, but for the sake of the story I didn't put them in. Next chapter is Thalia's point of view, so stay tuned for that (please.) Constructive criticism always helps, although if you're going to be an asshole, at least use proper grammar and spelling because if I'm going to be insulted, I want to be insulted by someone who sounds at least mildly intellegent. -Austin The Pamaj**


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